Author(s)

Yong Sung Won¹, Mihyeong Kim¹, Kang Woong Jun¹, Woo Seok Nam¹, Sanghyun Ahn¹, Jeong-Kye Hwang¹, Sang-Dong Kim¹, Sun-Cheol Park¹, Sang Seob Yun¹, Won-Chul Lee², Jang-Sang Park¹, Jang Yong Kim^1*

¹Division of Vascular Surgery, Department of Surgery, The Catholic University of Korea School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
²Department of Preventive Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

Objective: Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is very common and leading cause of death due to this procedure. The objective of this study was to investigate the incidence and clinical characteristics of DVT after TKA with DVT chemoprophylaxis. Methods: This is a prospective cohort study in single institution. The patients received postoperative DVT chemoprophylaxis (low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) or Fondaparinux), followed by duplex ultrasonography to check for DVT 1 - 2 weeks after TKA. The clinical characteristics were summarized and analysed by chi-square test and regression analysis. Results: Five hundred and thirty four patients were enrolled from January 2007 to December 2010. DVT chemoprophylaxis was administered in 524 (98.1%) of the 534 patients. DVT occurred in 9 subjects (1.69%); 8 subjects had DVT in the leg, and 1 subject had a pulmonary embolism. Among them, asymptomatic DVT was observed in 5 patients (0.94%). Univariate analysis showed that surgical methods (revision, P = 0.0007), body mass index (BMI) (>25, P = 0.0028), low platelet count (less than 150 × 10³, P = 0.0219), time in the intensive care unit (ICU) (P < 0.0001), no administration of prophylactic LMWH (P = 0.0392), and a history of DVT (P < 0.0001) were significant risk factors of DVT. Conclusions: The incidence of DVT was 1.69% after TKA with prophylactic antithrombotic therapy. Revision surgery, BMI, low platelet count, time in ICU, absence of prophylactic LMWH and history of DVT were significant risk factors of DVT.

Venous Thromboembolism, Thromboprophylaxis, Low Molecular Weight Heparin, Anticoagulation, Total Knee Arthroplasty

Won, Y. , Kim, M. , Jun, K. , Nam, W. , Ahn, S. , Hwang, J. , Kim, S. , Park, S. , Yun, S. , Lee, W. , Park, J. and Kim, J. (2014) Incidence and Clinical Characteristics of Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) after Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) with DVT Chemoprophylaxis. World Journal of Cardiovascular Diseases, 4, 531-538. doi: 10.4236/wjcd.2014.411064.